In 1532 James V founded the College of Justice, an
event that marked an important step in the institutional development of the Court of Session. At the same time it was enacted that a small number
of advocates should be licenced to appear before the College. This study, for the first time, casts light not only upon that key generation of advocates but also the legal world in which they operated. What kind of men were they?
What status did they have? What of their education and career pattern? How did they carry on their profession and by what rules were they constrained? For whom did they act and why?
This book investigates question such as these and describes the impact made by the members of the nascent legal profession on Scottish culture, politics and social life
in the first half of the sixteenth century.

John Finlay is a Lecturer in the School of Law, University of Glasgow.